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Category: Message Of Week
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The person who invented dynamite, Alfred Nobel, went on to establish 90 armament factories and amassed huge amounts of wealth through the arms trade. Then an incident took place which totally changed the course of his life.

In 1888, the death of his brother caused several newspapers to mistakenly publish obituaries of Alfred. One French obituary stated: "Le marchand de la mort est mort" ("The merchant of death is dead"). The obituary went on to say, "Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." Alfred, shocked at what he read, then took a positive decision about his life. In 1895, at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Nobel signed his last will and testament and set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.

Shock is a great educator. It sets off a process of brainstorming that a whole new mindset develops and as a new human personality emerges: Shocks, great or small, are very common. Almost everyone has had experience of them. But the majority take these as negative experiences and are unable to learn a lesson from them. However, shock is not an accident. Nature speaks in the language of shocks. If one does not become negative after suffering a shock, this can be a highly creative experience.

Shock will stimulate your mind, and will unfold your potential. It initiates creative thinking processes. It helps you to take better decisions in your life by bringing you from a state of total derailment to being right back on track. In other words, it makes you realistic in your approach. Everyone can become inspirational like Alfred Nobel; the only condition being that one should take shocks as a source of learning rather than a source of anger.

There are so many instances of people who received shocks, but were able to face them with a positive mind. Shock had proved a booster to their uplift.

How this worked on Gandhi's mind is well-known that he determined to fight for the rights including Freedom. What happened with Gandhi was an example of violence. Yet he decided to work for peace. He returned to India and started his movement which was based on ahimsa, non-violence. Soon, he became a champion of non-violent activism.

Thus Nature communicates thru Shock, what it wants us to understand, consider & mould ourselves.